Target for billiards and the like



Aug. 6, c. WANNEMACHER 2,010,282

TARGET FOR BILLIARDS AND THE Filed Jan. 22, 1955 I I C/ v 75' 74 3 F f523 V Y 1 76.]- a? ,,"H zfl m Patented Aug. 6, 1935 UNITED STATES, PATENTOFFICE TARGET FOR BILLIARDS AND THE LIKE Charles Wanncmacher, Buffalo,N. Y.

Application January 22, 1935, Serial No. 2,905

8 Claims.

This invention relates to a target for practicing billiards in order toimprove the skill of the player, and more particularly toa target ofthis character which is adjustable so as to render the playing ofbilliards more difficult as the skill of the player improves and alsopermit of adapting the target for use with billiard balls of differentdiameters or sizes.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide a target for thispurpose which can be readily placed upon any part of the plane of abilliard table in order to enable the player to practice billiard shotsin the respective locality where the shot is to be made, and also toprovide a target of this character which in effect simulates the objectball of a billiard game, and thus enables the player to improve theaccuracy of his shots as readily as when shooting at a regular billiardball.

A further object of this invention is to provide a target for thispurpose which is comparatively simple in construction and capableofbeing produced at low cost and also to so construct the target thatthe same is neat and attractive in appearance and can be easily'adjustedso as to adapt the same to the proficiency of the player and also enablebilliard balls of different sizes to be used to suit varyingrequirements.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a satisfactory form of target forpracticing billiards embodying my invention, when viewing the same fromthe front side thereof.

Figure 2 is a rear elevation of the same.

Figure 3 is a vertical cross section thereof taken on line 33 Fig. 2. V

Figure 4 is a top plan view of the same.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary section taken on the correspondingly numberedline in Fig. 2.

Figure 6 is a rear elevation of a target containing a modified form ofmy invention as compared with the construction shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

In the following description similar characters of reference indicatelike parts in the several figures of the drawing:

In its general organization this target comprises an arch l0 which isadapted to rest with the underside I I of its opposite ends on the planeor horizontal surface of a billiard table so as to form a passage I2between the recess I3 on the central underside of this arch and the topor plane of the table through which billiard balls are adapted to pass,and two guides l4 mounted on the. arch on opposite sides of the passageand adapted to direct the billiard ball which is shot toward the frontside of the target, rearwardly through this passage.

The arch is preferably constructed in the form of an upright plate oflight material such as wood or the like, and at its opposite ends thesame is 5 provided with laterally projecting feet 15 which are adaptedto rest on the top or plane of the table and increase the bearingsurface against the same, so that the arch is more stable and will bemaintained in an upright position when re- 10 sisting the impact of thecue billiard ball when the latter strikes one or other of the guides Mor some part of the arch when making a shot.

In the preferred construction each of the guides is made of ball-likeform so as to simulate a billiard ball, and these guides are mounted onthe front face of the arch so that their opposing inner surfaces projectbeyond the lower opposing edge portions of the recess I3 of the arch,whereby a billiard ball which is aimed at the passage in the 0 arch willeither pass through the same or hit the inner rounded surface of eitherone or the other of the ball-like guides, and thus glance off at anangle to the direction in which it was shot by the cue and passrearwardly through the passage I2 of the arch.

, In order to insure engagement of the cue ball with a rounded part ofthe opposing sides of the two ball-like guides when the cue ball is shottoward the same, each of these balls is preferably so mounted that atleast a part of its rounded or globular surface is located immediatelyadjacent the one side of the passage in the arch so that when therespective portion of the guide is hit by the cue ball the effect willbe substantially the same as when a cue ball hits an object ball andthereby causes the cue ball to be deflected at an angle from this guideand to be directed rearwardly through the passage in the arch if theshot has been made sufficiently accurate for this purpose.

In order to enable the guides of the target to be thus formed and stillbring the same relatively close to the arch for rendering the devicemore compact, it is preferable to make each guide in the form of atruncated sphere by cutting away the rear side of the guide ball at asuitable distance rearward of its center so as to maintain the fulldiameter of the same in a direction crosswise of the passage l2 in thearch, and provide a flat face IE on the rear side of this guide, as bestshown in Fig. 3.

In the use of this target for practicing billiard playing it isdesirable, if the player is a novice,

to first separate the two guides on the arch a con- 5 siderable distanceso that a ball shot toward the passage in the arch and the gap betweenthe two guides on the race thereof, will have a greater range ofopportunity for successfully attaining its objective, that is to say,passing through the gap between the guides and the passage in the archand possibly contacting with either one or both of the opposing surfacesof the guides during such movement.

When, however, the player becomes more adept in shooting the cue ballthrough the gap between the two guides and the passage in the arch ofthe target, the same may be rendered more difficult by narrowing the gapbetween these guides.

Means are therefore provided whereby the balllike guides are capable ofbeing adjusted one rela tively to the other for either increasing ordecreasing the width of the gap between the same to suit the skill orproficiency of the player.

In the preferred construction both of these guides are made adjustabletoward and from each other on the arch so that the center of the gapbetween these guides may be maintained inline with the center of therecess or passage within the arch. 7

In billiards it is also customary to use balls of difi'erent sizes tosuit diiierent tastes and also to allow for difference in cost of theballs, which may be governed by the size or" the same, and for thisreason the means for adjusting the two guides relatively to each otherare so constructed that they also serve to compensate for difierences inthe diameter of the ball-like guides which may be used, and enable thesame to be not only moved horizontally toward and from each other butalso vertically on the arch, so that the underside of the ball-likeguides may either rest or nearly rest on the top or plane of thebilliard table.

Although various means may be employed for thus adjusting the ball-likeguides both horizontally and vertically on the arch, those shown in thedrawing are satisfactory and constructed as follows:

The numeral ili represents a supporting plate or disk of metal or thelike which may be secured to the rear fiat side 96 or" each ball-likeguide by means of screws it? or other approved means of fastening. Fromeach of the supporting plates ll two clamping bolts, studs or screws isproject i rearwardly through an inclined slot 28 in the adjacent part ofthe arch it, each of these bolts having a threaded rear end whichreceives a screw nut 2! adapted to bear through the medium of a washer22 against the rear side of the arch iii. Upon loosening the two screwnuts 2! the two clamping bolts 49 which are arranged side by side may bemoved lengthwise in the respective slot 20 either inwardly or outwardly,and thereby move the respective ball-like guide it toward and from thecenter of the passageway i 2 in the arch, and also toward and from thetop or plane of the billiard table which is represented by the line 23.

The two slots 25 on opposite sides of the passage in the arch convergedownwardly so that by moving these two guides toward each other for thepurpose of reducing the distance of the gap between the same theseguides are also moved downwardly toward the top or plane of the tablefor the purpose of securing the desired width of the gap between theguides, and also bringing the ball-like guides into the desired positionrelative to the plane of the table.

In Fig. 2 the ball-like guides are represented as being movedcomparatively close together for the purpose of producing a narrow gapbetween the same, through which a small ball, shown by dotted lines 9,can pass with comparative freedom, and in this View the ball-like guidesare represented by dotted lines Ml in a position in which they arespaced farther apart, and therefore permit the passage of acomparatively large ball, which is indicated by dotted lines 8 in Fig.2. Obviously these means for adjusting the ball-like guides enable thegap between the guides of the target to be readily adapted for thepassage of cue balls of other dimensions within the range of thisadjusting means.

After the ball-like guides have been adjusted into the desired positionthey are firmly held in place on the arch by tightening the nuts 2! sothat the supporting plates E? are firmly clamped against the front sideor face of the arch as best shown in Fig. 5.

If desired, the means for adjusting the guides toward and from eachother for the purpose of either reducing or increasing the width of thegap between the same may be so constructed that this target will belimited to use with only one diameter of ball-like guides. In this casethe construction of the adjusting means is in all respects similar tothat shown in Figs. 2 and 5, excepting that the guide slots 2d whichreceive the clamping bolts is of the guides as are arrangedhorisontally, as shown in Fig. 6. In this construction the slots 24 areso located with reference to the lower edge ol the arch and the top orplane 23 of the billard table that the lowermost parts of the ball--likeguides always rest on or are arranged close to the top of the billiardtable so that the use of variable sized ball-like guides is not possibleand only a variation in the width of the gap between these ball-likeguides is possible.

It will be apparent from the foregoing that this target for practicingbilliards serves as an aid to billiard players desiring to improve theirgame, inasmuch as this target may be first set up with the guides of thetarget spaced comparatively far apart, to enable the player at first toshoot the cue ball through the gap and passage between the guides andarch without great difficulty, and as the players profiiciency increasesthe guides may be adjusted to reduce the gap between the same so as torender making of the shot more difficult and thus enable the player toprogressively increase the accuracy of his p ay.

Owing to the compact construction of this target the same does notoccupy an undue amount of room on the table top, the same is light andcan therefore be readily shifted from one part of the table to another,and it has very few parts which can be manufactured at low cost, and arenot liable to get out of order during normal use of the same.

I claim as my invention:-

1. A target for practicing billiards including an arch adapted to restat its opposite ends on the plane of a billiard table so as to form apassage for billiard balls in' this arch over said plane, guides mountedon said arch on opposite sides of said passage and adapted to direct abilliard ball through said passage, and means for adjusting said guidesrelatively to each other for widening or narrowing said passage.

2. A target for practicing billiards including an arch adapted to restat its opposite ends on the plane of a billiard table so as to form apassage for billiard balls in this arch over said plane, guides mountedon said arch on opposite sides of said passage and adapted to direct abilliard ball through said passage, and means for adjusting said guideson said arch relatively to the plane of said table.

3. A target for practicing billiards including an arch adapted to restat its opposite ends on the plane of a billiard table so as to form apassage for billiard balls in this arch over said plane, guides mountedon said arch on opposite sides of said passage and adapted to direct abilliard ball through said passage, and means for adjusting said guideson said arch relatively to each other and also relatively to the planeof the table.

4. A target for practicing billiards including an arch adapted to restat its opposite ends on the plane of a billiard table so as to form apassage between said arch and table for billiard balls, ball-like guidesarranged in front of said arch on opposite sides of the passage therein,and means for adjusting said guides on said arch.

5. A target for practicing billiards including an arch adapted to restat its opposite ends on the plane of a billiard table so as to form apassage between said arch and table for billiard balls, ball-like guidesarranged in front of said arch on opposite sides of the passage therein,and means for adjusting said guides on said arch consisting of slotsformed in said arch and clamping bolts mounted on said ball-like guidesand arranged in said slots.

6. A target for practicing billiards including an arch adapted to restat its opposite ends on the plane of a billiard table so as to form apassage between said arch and table for billiard balls, ball-like guidesarranged in front of said arch on opposite sides of the passage therein,and means for adjusting said guides on said arch consisting of slotsformed in said arch on opposite sides of said passage and convergingdownwardly, and clamping bolts mounted on said guides and arranged insaid slots.

'7. A target for practicing billiards including an arch adapted to restat its opposite ends on the plane of a billiard table so as to form apassage between said arch and table for billiard balls, ball-like guidesarranged in front of said arch on opposite sides of said passage andeach having a convex front face and a flat rear face, and means formounting said guides on said arch including bolts connected with theflat face of each guide and secured to said arch.

8. A target for practicing billiards including an arch adapted to restat its opposite ends on the plane of a billiard table so as to form apassage between said arch and table for billiard balls, ball-like guidesarranged in front of said arch on opposite sides of said passage andeach having a convex front face and a flat rear face, and means foradjustably mounting said guides on said arch including a plate securedto the flat face of each guide, a pair of clamping bolts projectingrearwardly from each of said plates, and slots formed in said arch andreceiving said bolts.

CHARLES WANNEMACHER.

